


Fly Me To The Moon

by Shatteeran



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Insecure Niall, M/M, Meet-Cute, Misunderstandings, Plane, Protective Liam, Scared Liam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 06:15:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4596015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shatteeran/pseuds/Shatteeran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niall isn't too keen on closed spaces.<br/>Liam is scared of flying.<br/>A plane should be the worst place on Earth for these two to meet...<br/>But somehow it isn't.</p><p>Or the one where Niall is a bit insecure, Liam is socially awkward, Louis has no shame, Zayn is very understanding and Harry has questionable work ethics.</p><p>[Update (because I like to find what I expect in my readings)]. Larry is barely mentioned in this... on the verge "if you squint" really, same for Zerrie. Perrie is not even aboard that plane. All fives boys are actual characters, but it's obviously Niam-centered. Also, rated M for language and brief not-at-all-subtle-but-far-from-graphic sex references. Here ya go now!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fly Me To The Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Right...  
> So I know I have other projects going on but this would not leave me alone until it was written. All done now... :)  
> Hope you like it!
> 
> All mistakes are mine (English is not my native language). The characters aren't.  
> This is obviously a fiction and I didn't even try to make it close to the reality.  
> Doesn't mean you can't enjoy it, though ! ;)

Niall’s leg bounced on the seat. His nerves were wearing thin, and the flight was still in its take-off phase. He closed his eyes and started to count backwards from one hundred, patiently waiting for the second when he would be allowed to turn his music back on.

He sighed of relief when the light signal went off. He immediately ducked his head between his legs to retrieve his MP3 player. Blonde hair vanished in his backpack, only to reappear immediately when he hear someone cough awkwardly near him. Ocean blue eyes confusedly wandered around until they focused on warm chocolate brown ones… with a whole person attached to them. A young man was standing in the alley, looking back at him with shy curiosity. Niall’s feet finally stopped its rhythmic movement.

“May I, hum, may I sit here? Maybe?”, the man asked, nodding towards the empty seat between them.

Niall peered at him suspiciously. Who the fuck changed places in the middle of a flight? The blonde examined the other’s thin lips as they stretched in an amiable smile, the crinkles who began to form at the corners of his eyes. His gaze followed the nervous hand who went up to caress buzz-cut brown hair back and forth, and then got distracted by the shuffling hips in front of him, informing Niall of two things.

First, the bloke facing him was impossibly fit. Niall absentmindedly bit his lower lip. Second, the intruder had been waiting for an answer from a staring Niall for way too long.

“Ahem, s-sure.”  
“Ha, thanks, mate!”

The stranger replied with a full-on grin. And yeah, crinkles. And Niall got his third info flash of the day: his new travel companion was also unbelievingly cute. He cursed his luck internally. Now the flight would seem so much longer. They settled into a comfortable silence. From the corner of his vision, Niall watched the other get increasingly absorbed in his book. “The Shadow of the Wind”, it read. It looked smart. And from the way, the reader’s eyebrows kept on furrowing to suddenly jump towards his hairline, Niall decided they were. Both the book and the hottie holding it.

After throwing a glance for the third time and remaining completely unnoticed, the blonde decided to just go for it and to creep unashamedly on the beautiful man sitting next to him. Less than five minutes had passed since the “Belts on” signal had gone off.

“Are you okay?”, the brunette whispered in a concerned voice as he put his book down to let his gaze roam over Niall’s face, apparently looking for any sign of discomfort. And no, butterflies couldn’t survive at this altitude, even in the blonde’s tummy. No freaking way.

‘”Yes, why?”, he countered defensively.  
“You just seem tense, is all. Scared of heights or summat?”, the other shrugged, but he still observed Niall like he truly cared. And it wasn’t helping him to calm down one bit.  
“Closed spaces make me uncomfortable”, Niall mumbled and his eyes widened when self-awareness caught up with him. He didn’t blush. He didn’t, but he hid his face in his shirt just in case. Way to go, Horan.  
“I’m Liam”, the stranger offered, as if to apologize for having pulled intimate information out of him. Yet his smirk was fond rather than apologetic.  
“Name’s Niall”, the blonde returned and he looked up from behind his eyelashes, catching again the kindest eyes he’d ever seen.

His breath caught. And it was somehow fortunate that all his brain power was occupied to prevent him from melting right there and turning into a puddle of Liam’s feet or it would have really annoyed him how out of control he felt.

“So”, Liam said, breaking the moment. “I have read somewhere that physical contact was a great cure for stress and anxieties”. The end of his sentence sort of got caught in his throat.  
“What?”, Niall stuttered, incredulous. Mostly, he spoke out of fear that his neighbor would hear the wild beating of his heart. Surely Niall wasn’t allowed to touch him, striking as he was.  
“I, well, this is a bit embarrassing. I’m scared of flying”, the brunette admitted with a sheepish expression. Niall refused to acknowledge the rosy cheeks or he’d jump out of his seat to cuddle Liam to death. He settled on ignoring the admission like Liam had done his earlier.  
“Like what? Hand holding?”, he wondered aloud, with his best casual tone.

His guess was met with eager nods and… God. The most irresistible puppy-eyed look Niall had ever witnessed. Liam placed his hand, palm up, on their shared armchair. Something inside Niall twisted uncomfortably, warning him that there was no chance in a thousand worlds that this man… Greek God… entity would be actually seriously entertaining the idea of holding hands with him. But all the ringing bells in his mind went unheard, deafened by the static in his ears at the thought of brushing Liam’s skin with his fingertips. His whole body shivered. With more bravado than he felt, Niall mirrored his neighbor actions and let his own hand hang in the air, a few centimeters above Liam’s. Eye contact never broke. And the traveler’s expression remained open and expectant.

They closed the gap. Niall clenched his teeth harder than he ever had, solely focused on keeping that traitorous sigh trapped in this trachea. As a bonus for holding it so well, he distinctly heard Liam’s content (or was it repulsed?) sigh. The blonde popped his eyes open, startled, to stare at his new… plane friend. Plane friend worked, he decided. Again, he was looking at a very satisfied smile ornamenting the most earnest expression. Liam squeezed his hand reassuringly. He smiled and squeezed back as his train of thoughts redirected to the sensation caused by the touching.

The brunette’s hand was assorted to his owner: sturdy-looking (the kind Niall would pick if he had to choose one to hoist him over the top of lethal cliff), soft (the kind of hands Niall would give free wandering access over his body), warm (to pull him through all the cruel, stormy, cold times of life), strong (enough to carry him bridal style), steady (so that Niall could easily picture handing over a cooing baby to them).

Liam returned the squeezing. Double-time. Like a beating heart.

This hand Niall could picture himself deposit his own heart in and be reassured it would never be dropped or played with.

Niall responded. Same pace.

God, how stupid could he get over this… this admittedly otherworldly handsome face, but still! He had met the guy… Like… Wow! Only twenty minutes ago and he was already dedicated lyrical poetry to his hands. Come on!

Back and forth.

Until Liam finally ended it… by taking his hand back.

“This is ridiculous”, he muttered.

And Niall’s hopes dropped twenty thousand feet. They probably floated, scattered over the sea, not too far from where his dignity had drowned since he had agreed to the hand holding. The blonde trapped his between his thighs, not daring to even glance at his plane fri… neighbor. He thus overlooked Liam raising the armchair in the up position between their seats and completely missed when the cherished hand returned, palm up, on Liam’s lap.

“Niall…”, a hesitant voice called. Said blonde was torn between three powerful emotions: the joy of discovering his name was known or remembered, the excitement of hearing it pronounced by a husky voice, the dread of imagining what the rest of the sentence entitled. “Sorry I got fidgety, but this armchair is terribly uncomfortable, I’m telling you. Not made for bony elbows like mine. T’was getting ridiculous. But see? I removed it. All good now. No more obstacles. So, hum, if you still wanna…”

Niall looked at him with wide eyes, frenetically searching for an explanation to the sudden rambling… until the last of the words registered. His middle and ring fingers barely brushed against Liam’s that his whole hand was trapped and tucked safely on the man’s lap. Double-squeeze for good measure. This time, Niall couldn’t help sighing.

“So, what brings you to Dublin?”, he asked in lieu of diversion.  
“Work. And you?”  
“I’m actually traveling farther North. Up to Mullingar. It’s okay if you don’t know it, it is really small. It’s me hometown. My older brother just got a baby boy. I’m an uncle”, he said and smiled, unwillingly showing all his teeth.  
“That’s cute”, Liam commented with a smile on his own; and Niall momentarily forgot about how insecure his dentition had made him feel growing up. “Babies are always cute”, Liam added as an afterthought, clouding Niall’s happy features.  
“Not always”, he mumbled.  
“If they’re from your family, I am fairly certain they cannot be anything but”, Liam teased.

Oh. He must have seen Niall’s disappointment and he had decided to throw in a compliment out of pity. The blonde rewarded him with a smile but failed to make it reach his saddened blue eyes. Liam added no word but tightened his hand around Niall’s.

“What line of work?”, the Irish asked, intent on lightening the topic again.  
“My mate Louis – it is the dork over there who is unabashedly listening in on us as I speak…”  
“Hey…”, a clear voice complained two rows behind on their right.  
“…and I, we’re sound engineers. To keep the story short, we know this producer in Dublin and we would like to get him to listen to a demo we’ve been working on. Maybe rework some parts with him to get a better sound.”  
“That’s really cool”, and Niall hoped he kept his heart eyes under some sort of control.  
“Thank you. It makes me wonder, Niall… What kind of music do you like?”  
“A bit of everything, really. Recently, I have been obsessed with this song from Hozier. “Take Me To Church”, have you heard it?”  
“I am not much of a churchgoer myself”, Liam answered, looking uncomfortable. “But I totally respect and admire those who do.”

Niall chuckled and wordlessly handed over of his right ear phone to his neighbor, then plucked the left one in his own ear, all the while trusting his hand safely in Liam’s care. If he had to move his head closer to his stunning friend because of the short cable, none of them complained. After the first chorus, the brunette’s eyes reopened. He glanced at his neighbor with red blotches on his cheeks.

“Oh. This is not a song about God at all, is it?”, he asked, chuckling.

Niall laughed along. Or rather, he cackled. He’d always hated his laugh, getting mocked and taunted over the years for being too loud or sounding stupid. But Liam’s reaction to Niall’s laughter was identical to all his previous ones. Fucking crinkles. Niall was so screwed.

The Irish didn’t pause his playlist when the next song came up. Neither man commented or removed their ear phone so they rearranged themselves to be more comfortable and kept on listening, sometimes throwing a random comment or discussing shortly between songs. They mentioned Liam’s sisters and his parents, back in Wolverhampton, talked about the original songs Niall wrote with his guitar, shared stories about their respective best mates (thankfully, Louis didn’t interrupt this time). Niall told Liam about his worst scare while being trapped in a closet in elementary school and Liam related it to his first time boarding a plane. And while Niall was continuously impressed with Liam’s wits, with the non-judgmental kindness showing behind each of his words, he felt appeased, as if he could truly be himself with this stranger, so high up amongst the clouds, his restlessness completely gone. The thought of getting his hand back never crossed his mind.

Niall woke up to a sensation of endlessly falling, a whimpering sound and an almost painful squeeze of his hand. All of this information flew out the windows as soon as he was conscious enough to pick up on _Liam_ -related Intel. The arm tucked around his shoulders, encasing his whole upper body, made him fit perfectly against Liam’s body. The blonde’s head was snuggled against the brunette’s neck and he worried of having drooled over his friend’s plane white-fitted shirt. They were still holding hands so Niall decided it probably had not been so bad. Also, he estimated he could still pretend to be somewhat asleep and he nuzzled against the other’s throat, purposefully ignoring how Liam’s breath caught at the contact. The man smelled divinely, obviously. He wore a complex perfume whose scent opened on a hint of citrus but quickly evolved into a larger range. It mixed spiciness, a smell similar to mint but not quite identical and notes of flowery sweetness. The result was heady and yet incredibly enticing and underneath it all Niall could identify traces of pure Liam…

“Sorry, I woke you up”, Liam interrupted with a clear edge in his voice.  
“You didn’t. The perturbations did. Sorry if I drooled on you.”  
“You didn’t”, Liam countered with a smile. “You’ve only been out for, like, ten minutes.”  
“Yeah?”  
“Yeah. You do mumble in your sleep, though. Great sense of imagination you have.”  
“What?”  
“You were in some sort of a mythology dream, I reckon. Said something about a Greek God…”, the brunette trailed off. Niall pressed his eyes shut together. How embarrassing. He hoped he didn’t mention Liam’s name. The Irish felt the tips of his ears starting to burn. A particularly violent shock saved him from additional explanations.

Liam grinded his teeth to retain his cry. Niall pressed his fingers around the Wolverhampton boy’s twice. He got a grateful glance and a corner of a smile as a “thank you”.

“Alright, I know what we’re going to do”, Niall took charge.  
“What?”  
“You are going to make a list of all the things you are going to do when we land.”  
“We are n-never g-going to l-land, Niall. We are a-all g-going to d-d-die”, Liam whined, but they both knew he was overplaying it. Niall just rejoiced of hearing his name for the third time.  
“Sure we are. Dying is not on my list. What’s on yours? When we land, Liam, you are…”, Niall tried again.  
“I am… g-going to g-get my lug-gage.”  
“Right. I was hoping for something a little bit more epic.”  
“Uh. M-me and L-louis. Ah, Louis and me”, Liam corrected. Niall smiled, completely failing at hiding his fond but Liam was far too focused on his fear to notice. “We will get a d-drink. G-go to a p-pub and celebrate making it alive. I h-hear there a-are some c-cool p-places in Dub-blin.”

Another jerk shook the plane violently, projecting Liam towards Niall. The first buried his head in the crook of the second’s shoulder, squeezing his hand extra hard for support. It almost hurt, but somehow it felt right, being there for Liam like this.

“Sure. I know one that’s pretty fun. Great choices of beer on the tap”, Niall supplied.  
“M-maybe c-come w-with u-us. I-if y-you w-want?”

It seemed to Niall that Liam’s stuttering got worse at the question. He discarded it in favor of keeping the discussion going to distract the scared man next to him.

“Tell you what, Li, if these perturbations last more than ten minutes, I’ll buy you a pint meself”.

Of fucking course, at that exact moment, the plane stabilized. Niall groaned internally as they disentangled from one another. Niall barely stopped himself from chasing a lasting whiff of his crush’s perfume.

“Thank you for, you know, talking me through it”, Liam whispered, cheeks a bit rosy, eyes still wide with anguish.  
“Sure, mate. Good think you came to sit here, right?”, Niall teased and for the second time since they met, an alarm rang at the back of his mind. Why would Liam go through the trouble of taking a seat near a stranger if he was traveling with his mate Louis?  
“Right!”, Liam agreed enthusiastically. “My mate Louis had dared me to. Thought I wouldn’t have the nerve to take you hand. Proved him wrong, didn’t I?”

Niall felt the happiness drop out of his features. Cold dread trickled from his shoulder blades down his back. It had all been a challenge. Come to think of it, it served as the only possible explanation as to why an amazing mate as Liam would take any interest towards a person like Niall. And he had walked right into it. Liam looked like he had yet to catch on with the situation. Or rather, Niall adjusted, _he didn’t care._ The crinkles by the brunette’s eyes were mocking him. This was a cruel joke to play on someone, especially someone as trusting and carefree as Niall.

He spotted a flight attendant walking down the alley. Niall hailed him to be faced with curly hair and an easy smile. A glint of mischief passed by is green eyes, but the steward sported such an earnest expression that the Irish believed he could trust him.

“Hello. I am Harry. What can I do for you?”  
“H-hi H-Harry”, Niall replied, still a bit thrown off by the turn of events and slightly annoyed by how pretty his savior looked. Just another reminder of how out of his league… their leagues… Niall always had been. “I’m N-Niall and it might sound a bit weird, perhaps, but I was wondering if it would be okay to maybe change seats.”  
“No problem”, Harry responded immediately, at ease like he got this kind of request every day. “There is actually a seat available three rows ahead. If I may ask you to please come with me, sir.”

Niall hurriedly got up and finally spared a look towards Liam, silently begging him to not make a fuss about this. The Irish had already been made enough of a fool of for today, or a whole week. His once plane friend just gaped at him, while the blonde just shuffled uncomfortably, trapped in the enclosed space.

“Please excuse me and I do not mean to rush you, but we usually try to discourage people from standing up unless it is absolutely necessary”, Harry chimed in.

Liam wordlessly walked out of his seat to let Niall go, all signs of happiness or flirting gone from his face. It served him right, Niall thought. He took his backpack and made his way towards the empty place, followed by Harry. Intent of avoiding all form of questioning, Niall kept his head down as he sat, but eventually was forced to smile at his new neighbor when he heard them talk over him.

“Hi, I apologize for bothering you. Would you mind if Niall here sits next to you for the end of this flight?”  
“Of course not, it’s no bother at all.”

The man had honey-colored skin, raven-dark hair and equally intense black eyes, both styled in a “just-woke-up” kind of look that he advertised perfectly. His thin and pale lips seem to be torn in a permanent subtle smirk. And, because someone above obviously like to rain on Niall’s parade, he looked like a fucking model. Was there some minimal standard of beauty to be admitted aboard this plane? The blonde was seriously considering checking with the staff whether he had checked in for the wrong flight when bloody alien beauty (Niall nicknamed ‘babe’ in his mind) directly to him.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out with that other dude.”  
“Wha?”, Niall squeaked. He had been expected an accent, but it turned out his English sounded very erudite.  
“That Liam-guy. Behind us. Yeah. Sorry you fell out of love or summat”, he shortly explained, that smirk at the edge of his lips suddenly not so discreet anymore. “Harry gushed a lot about you two”, he added to justify his knowledge.  
“Well. Not your fault, is it?”, the blonde snapped. Was the whole plane aware of this debacle? This was it. He would die of shame before he’d get to leave this plane… Before he’d get to order a drink for Lia-… Oh. Tears threatened to spill. He blinked furiously.

“So, what’s your name?”  
“Zayn. Zayn Malik. Pleased to meet you, Niall.”  
“Right.”  
“I didn’t mean to upset you. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t know what he’s missing.”, Zayn offered.  
“Thank you. But he does, actually. Has known all along. That’s kind of the problem, here”, Niall mumbled, surprised to confide himself to yet another stranger.  
“Then he’s a bloody idiot. In any case, you’re better off”, the man said softly. Niall chuckled.  
“Thanks. So. I guess you’re already know all about me. What brings a stunning model like you to my country?”, he asked jokingly.  
“Thank you”, the other replied, amused. “But I’m actually a math teacher in uni. Also, I prefer to be honest upfront while answering your question: I’m actually going to meet my bride.”  
“Oh, that’s great”, Niall commented, dumbfounded.  
“Not like that”, Zayn snickered. “Perrie and I got married three weeks ago in London, but then she had to travel to New York for work so we are meeting halfway, if you allow me the geographical approximation and then we fly to Japan together for our honeymoon.”  
“Congratulations”, the blonde answered with an apologetic smile.

For a second, Zayn’s eyes got lost somewhere behind Niall. The Irish used the opportunity to stare at the wedding ring on his finger. A goofy grin reclaimed his dutiful place on Niall’s face. He was never one to stay down or sad for long. And he also happened to be really sappy.

Zayn produced a smacking sound to get the Irish’s attention back to him.

“I sing in a choir”, beautiful man stated out of the blue. “We should jam, sometimes. Also, I have a few hours before my connection to Tokyo. Plenty of times for a pint.”  
“Why are you…” Seriously, how much could Harry have listened and spread of his and Liam’s conversation? Niall winced. Pronouncing Liam’s name, even internally, was still hurting him a little.

A stressed and low voice suddenly filled the cabin.  
“Good afternoon, everyone.”  
Niall cringed at the whistling sound the feedback loop generated. A second voice, smoother and higher, but somewhat hushed, joined the first.  
“Seriously, Payne? How do you not know how to use a microphone with the job we do?”  
“Louis”, the first person replied in a whine, “did you really have to give them my last name _and_ job?”  
“Tut tut! Nobody would have known it was your last name if you had not just confirmed it. Also, I didn’t say we were sound enginee…”  
“Shut your clap, already!”

Niall didn’t doubt for a second that the owner of the voice had a small smile on through this whole exchange.

“Good afternoon, again. Sorry for the feedback. My name is Liam, Liam Payne. Hum. Oh. And I am not here to car-jack this plane.”  
“Good intro.”  
“Shut up, Tommo! I deeply apologize for the inconvenience, but I have wronged someone in this plane today and I would like a chance to explain myself, so… erm… please bear with me for a couple of minutes.”

Liam’s speech was met with a polite silence. A few passengers turned their head to look at Niall with curiosity. The blonde saw others removing their ear phones to listen.

“Let me tell you a bit more so you can understand. You see, I’m scared of flying. I always have. When we boarded the place, I was telling Louis…”  
“Bitching, more like.”  
“Louis Tomlinson, I swear to God…”  
“Okay, okay…”

Niall giggled, instantly hating himself for it. He had no intention to forgive the brunette, but the two men antics were hilarious and so out of place with Liam’s reserved, kind and calm behavior. If he were to be honest with himself for a quarter of a millisecond, he would admit to be falling in love with the second of aspect of his personality just as hard as he had fallen for the… for him, for Liam. But in a day like this and in times of needs, honesty was overrated.

“As you can all witness, Louis is wonderfully patient.”  
“Hey!”  
“…”  
“…”  
“… So after a while, he told me to get lost. Or more like, he suggested, since I was so sure I was going to die, he told me to… hum…”, Liam trailed off with embarrassment. He inhaled profoundly. “Louis told me I should find the cutest person in the plane and get them to hold my hand during the flight. That way, I’d die with no regrets, no matter what.”

Niall blinked. He had not been expecting this at all. His heart started beating wildly, threatening to escape his ribcage. Upon hearing his first name uttered for the fourth time by the gruff sexy voice he was enthralled with, he returned the other passengers’ looks with a wide-eyed stare. He forced himself to calm down. Sure, Liam found him cute. The cutest, he had said. But it didn’t justify the flirting, it didn’t mean he had been genuine.

“Niall, I feel like I displeased you. And hum, I would be okay… eventually… if you never want to talk to me again. But I would feel grateful, honored, if you would consider… forgiving me, maybe?”

Blonde hair and blue eyes popped in the alley as Niall leant over the armchair to try and get a sight of Liam. It did not work. Silence stretched in the plane. It was actually unexpectedly deafening, for once…. Until Liam spoke again, and this time, his words were rushed like panic was taking over.

“And you know, I feel like I have been punished already. Because Louis’ plan totally backfired”, he laughed humorlessly. “I _have_ regrets. So much. Like I will wish I have never met you because I was really looking forward to that pint at the pub later and now it will never happen. But also had I not met you, it would have been a real shame because I… you have the most amazing captivating blue eyes I have never seen…”  
“I thought _I_ have the most…”  
“And your smile. God. It’s just blinding and it’s like nothing wrong can happen when you smile and now, it feels like life will be gloomy no matter what. And you have that musical laugh and trust me, I know what I’m talking about. And… and you make these adorable faces when you sleep, Ni.”

Niall blushed at the nickname. For a few seconds, overwhelmed by emotion, his vision blurred and static filled his ears.

“It felt right with your head on my shoulders and your hand in mine, you know? So soft… Your hair smells like watermelon, by the way…”  
“Liam, I think…”

Okay, now Niall was probably purple.

“And your whole face lights up when you talk about something you like. You’re so passionate…”  
“Liam, mate, stop…”  
“Self-confident and funny. And… and safe. And sweet.”  
“… You made your point…”, Louis chimed in again.  
“You are a beautiful human being, Niall. And now I don’t know if I regret meeting you or not getting to know you better.”  
“Let it go, man. You tried.”

Niall was too stunned to move. Liam liked him. He _liked_ him. Genuinely. He understood the words, but the concept was too far-fetched for him to fully comprehend it. Surely there must be an explanation and… Something poked at his hip. Niall turned his head back to Zayn to be met by a stern look.

“He’s at the front of the place. I saw him run towards there earlier. He was frantic.”

Niall felt a smile stretch his lips and Zayn’s mouth mirrored his actions. Unbuckling his seat belt and raising in one motion, he ran more than he walked in the alley, bumping elbows and knees on his way and not giving a damn. He had never smile this radiantly in his whole life.

He pushed the drape barring his route away, almost tearing it with his impatience, just in time to see a smaller man with brown fluffy hair pry the microphone away from Liam.  
“Oh, and since we’re at it. Curly, you have the most wonderful arse I’ve ever seen. Seriously, like you have no idea what this steward tight pants are doing to me. You ever done it on a plane?”  
“That would not be very professional”, a blushing Harry mumbled on the left. “But I’m free after landing…”

On Niall’s right, Liam stood, eyes cast towards the floor, biting his lower lip.

“Niall…”, he started pitifully and the blonde was suddenly hit with the full-on puppy look. Niall’s heart stopped in his chest; he would sell it without a second thought in order to cheer up Liam.

“I should be doing that”, Niall said, as he walked slowly towards him, almost as if the brunette could be scared off and run away. In reality, the Irish was willing to give his crush every chance he could to get back on his words, because, once he’d caught Liam, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to let go.

“I know... I’m sorry. And I’m sorry I hurt you”, Liam agreed, the sadness ever present in his voice.  
“You’re misunderstanding me, Liam”, the blonde replied warningly as he reached his goal.  
“Wh-?”  
“I meant, worrying your lip. I should be doing that.”

That’s when Niall stopped resisting. He crashed his lips upon Liam’s. The Wolverhampton man expected it; his strong arms instantly moved to encase the blonde’s waist and pull him closer to him. Niall’s slender fingers grabbed the short hair on Liam’s nape. His other hand flew up to caress his bicep. He felt more than he heard Liam’s sigh of relief. It mixed perfectly with his own. His crush let out another sigh, but this one bordered more on the moaning side and Niall used it as his cue to bite his lip. The kiss got more heated and Niall’s thoughts turned to mush when Liam’s tongue feathered on his lips. He gave him access, let him wash his mind of everything that wasn’t _Liam Liam Liam._

For the first time since he boarded a plane, Niall actually felt dizzy and it had nothing to do with the height.

“Please excuse me and I do not mean to rush you, but we usually try to discourage people from standing up unless it is absolutely necessary.”  
“Seriously, Harry? That’s where you draw the line?”, Niall replied, half-teasingly, half-incredibly annoyed. Liam laughed and those stupid crinkles were back. The Irish kissed them just because he could; Liam’s smile just got bigger.

“You know, I sing too. I’m not half bad, if I say so myself”, Harry randomly started as he escorted all three men back to their seats. Niall’s hand had found his rightful place in Liam’s one again. They walked in the alley amongst a few clapping hands and wolf whistles. When they reached Zayn’s row, their raven-haired friend held Niall’s backpack with a blatant smirk.

“So”, he asked in a somewhat sarcastic voice, “what’s the name of this pub all five of us are going to later?”  
“It’s called One Direction.”  
“Seem fitting”, Liam commented, going for smug and failing miserably, betrayed by the wonder and adoration as he looked at the blonde.  
“Shut up and kiss me”, Niall retorted.

Liam complied. Neither of them heard the “we are getting ready for landing” message.


End file.
